Free Cafe in the Park (Siren Publishing Classic) by Elodie Parkes Page B

ended by this lovely woman. She’s everything I ever wanted. “We should go inside.” He kissed her and moved away. His jeans were down around his knees, and he pulled them up in a deft move, then hurried to pick up Emily’s dress.
    She’d pulled up her panties when he handed her the dress. Her affectionate smile tore at his emotions as she took the dress and stepped into it.
    His heart was fit to explode with tenderness for her. He stepped close and lifted her hair to zip the dress for her. The nape of her neck irresistible, he nuzzled there and felt goose bumps rise against his lips. He let her hair slip through his fingers to feel the softness.
    Emily turned to him.
    Chris caught her hands in his and brought them to his chest.
    She smiled. “Your heart is beating so fast. Are you okay?”
    He grinned. “Your heart’s beating fast, too. I think we should go in, drink the orange juice, and snuggle up. It’s got to be nearly two in the morning. You must have been up early for work. Are you tired?”
    Emily shook her head. “No, not tired, happy.” She leaned her head on his chest.
    Chris gently covered her head with his hands. “You are tired.”
    He picked her up to take her inside. He kissed the tip of her nose as she gazed up at him and slid her arms around his neck.
    “I could get used to being taken care of like this.” Her voice a whisper, she tilted her face to kiss his mouth.
    Chris was already captivated, so her words lit him. A burst of happiness filled him. This was exactly what he wanted, needed in fact. He’d finally found her, the one he’d been searching for. He carried her inside and down to the leather sofa that bordered the sunken pool.
    He sat down and brought her with him onto his knee.
    Emily snuggled against him. “Tell me about this house, Chris. Did you get it built? Who designed it?”
    Chris started to tell her things. He’d designed the house and had it built. They talked quietly to each other, sharing information that would bind them together, all the time stroking each other, an arm, a cheek. They kissed each other, and Chris relaxed into the bubble of tenderness that surrounded them.
    Emily fell asleep, resting on his chest. Chris laid his head on the sofa back and closed his eyes. Nothing could beat this.
    The night air coming in from the balcony window woke Chris. It smelt distinctively of rain. He stroked Emily’s hair and lifted her head gently with a finger under her jaw. She woke as he kissed her softly.
    “Emily, let’s go to bed.”
    She stirred. “Okay. Can I use the bathroom?”
    Chris nodded. “Of course, and there’s stuff in there. Just use what you need.”
    She clambered off his knee, grinning. “Stuff?”
    He smiled and pushed her up onto her feet. “Toothpaste and such.” He leapt up beside her and took her hand. His bedroom was on the next floor and had its own bathroom, but he stopped at one of the guest bedrooms and showed her into the bathroom there. “My room is along the hall from this one. I’ll leave the door open for you.” He left her then and ran down to the kitchen. He grabbed two bottles of spring water from the fridge and sprinted up to his bedroom.
    He dropped the water on the chest by the bed and hurtled into the en suite. In less than two minutes, he was back, showered, with a towel around his waist and his hair dripping. Emily still wasn’t in his bedroom, and he rubbed at his hair. He ran his fingers through it, then took his towel back into his bathroom. He figured it was nearly four in the morning and he wasn’t tired, but he wanted a few hours cuddling Emily in his usually solitary bed.
    He took a drink of water before checking the time on his cell phone.
    Emily popped her head around the bedroom door. “I just had to shower quickly.” She smiled as she walked to him wrapped in a towel, her damp hair squeezed and wound in a coil down one shoulder.
    Chris went to her, took off the towel, and threw it on a chair near the